TO GO WITH AFP STORY The cover to the fi

AELMHULT, SWEDEN: TO GO WITH AFP STORY The cover to the first Ikea catalog from 1951, shown in the Ikea museum in Aelmhult 02 December 2004. As a privately held company Ikea manages to avoid publishing any financial results beyond its turnover, which it said was 12.8 billion euros, or 17.1 billion dollars last year, and can thus avoid much negative coverage of its earnings or business practices. Instead the company, which earlier this year was valued by Swedish financial magazine Veckans Affaerer at 400 billion kronor (60.3 billion dollars, 45 billion euros), has focused on getting the media to talk about its products and to tell the feel-good story of its found Ingvar Kamprad's merger beginning as a match salesman. AFP PHOTO - SVEN NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read SVEN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images)